Jets preparing for dangerous threat at home

THE JETS' battle to stay in Intrust Super Cup finals contention ramps up this weekend at home against the Central Queensland Capras.

Capras will come to Ipswich determined to put in a good show live on Channel 9.

The Jets meanwhile will be keen to keep their season alive and win three games in a row. The Jets have won two in a row twice this year, but have not cracked the three in a row since rounds 7-10 last season.

The Jets played the Capras in Rockhampton to kick off the Easter weekend but there were no Easter eggs for Ipswich when they fell 28-18.

Ipswich has not been a great hunting ground for the Capras.

The Central Queensland side have won three, the Jets 12, with one draw. The Jets have won the past seven in a row.

As well as being quick out of dummy half, Gilbert is also a tacking demon making 567 tackles this year from his 15 games.

Gilbert scored a try in the Capras' win against the Jets and plays 80 minutes for Central Queensland.

"We won't change too much,'' Gilbert said.

"Maybe a few more risks but I just want to make my tackles and work hard. I will say even before I played the Jets I hated your style. Turning guys under and side to side, it's hard work for me."

Play of the game

THE Ipswich Jets won their second game in a row over the Falcons.

Ipswich made the Falcons do a mountain of work. By full- time, the Falcons had made 117 more tackles than the Jets.

The Jets had the ball for 29 minutes compared to the Falcons' 15 minutes. It was in the second half that the Jets took advantage of tired Falcons.

When the Falcons scored just on halftime, they took a 22-12 lead into the break. The next play after the restart would break the game open.

Falcons player Harry Grant gave away a penalty at the 46 minute mark and next play Huskie was crashing through the Falcons defence as if he was the van from the A-team - the Jets' Mr T was at the wheel.

I watched Huskie's try with him and he took me through it.

"I hardly get the ball near the try line and this time I just looked at Jayden and said to give me the ball when Dane was calling for it,'' he said.

"I always carry from our try line to the opposition 30 and just let the boys do their thing when we are attacking in the 20.

"Jayden read my mind and I was determined to get the try and get our roll on from there."

From that try, the Jets scored the next three tries.

Chips to hay

WITH three home games in a row and a large area of our country in drought, the Ipswich Jets have decided to turn chips into hay.

For every cup of hot chips, you buy at the Jets' home games for the rest of 2018 the Jets will donate $1 to Buy a Bale Drought Relief Charity.

"We've set the modest target of selling 500 cups of chips in our canteen over the next three home games. Which equates to five large bales of hay for our farmers but we hope to sell many more," Jets CEO Jason Cubit said.

Thanks to all women

THIS week the QRL will celebrate the important role that women play in rugby league.

The Ipswich Jets have great women who work for the club and fulfil a variety of roles.

Thank you to the women who work for the Jets and all the wives, mums and women who give up their time and make such an effort to our club and rugby league.

Magic milestones

MICHAEL Purcell scored his 50th try in 52 games for the Jets.

Nat Neale played game 122 for the Jets and became the seventh-most capped Jet.

Cooper's stat

SEVENTY-two percent of the time the team that plays the Jets loses the next week. Only five times this year has a team won after playing the Jets.

A cold beer with . . .

The adjective big goes with certain players - Big Mal and Big Al McInnes are two of them. Alastair McInnes went to uni one day and ended up staying at Valleys for 13 years. We pulled up a stool at the Kalbar Pub and talked it over.

What are you doing now? My wife Barbara and I have owned and operated post offices in Queensland and Victoria for the past 28 years. We are currently in Melbourne for a month but we are based on the Gold Coast and normally work from there.

How did you end up at Valleys? I attended Ipswich State High and after sport I would catch the bus home to Harrisville from down the bottom of Brisbane Street outside Kev Laimer's Menswear Shop. He would invariably come out and have a chat. One day I told him I was heading to Brisbane to go to QIT and he suggested I play for Valleys as they were the reigning premiers, so I dropped in there and stayed 13 years.

In the 1979 grand final, you outclassed Souths in every way 26-0. What are your memories of that game? I was fortunate being coached by two of the greatest coaches of the Brisbane Rugby League from 1965-1990, Henry Holloway and Ross Strudwick. Struddy was our coach in '79 and we just seemed to have the right blend of everything in our side. Struddy psyched the backs up for the semi against Easts which we won 27-2 and then geed the forwards up for the grand final. We tackled Souths out of it then the backs ran away with it in the last 20 minutes.

Who was your favourite Ipswich footballer? I'd get in a lot of trouble if I didn't say Dave Roderick and Gary Parcell who just happened to be our next door neighbours on our farms at Harrisville. But there has been a stack of very capable players who have come out of Ipswich and Ipswich would have been a powerhouse club if they had been able to hold onto all the footballers who grew up there.

With a young Wally and a young Chris Close, that Valleys team had some outstanding talent. Did you always think they were going to be big players? Wally Lewis was always going to be a legend. We would be playing draughts on the field and Wally was playing chess. Wally had the mental and physical abilities to put himself a couple of rungs further up the ladder than his teammates and opposition. "Choppy" Close was a great player who unfortunately did not stay too long with us at Valleys, he had the physique to burst through the first line of defence and set up many a try.